Actually, there's two reasons they're getting in. 1. Lenses, flashes and accessories are quite profitable. And SLR users buy more of these.
2. They don't lose money on the cameras. Unlike many P&S cameras these days, which are break-even at best. -Adam P. J. Alling wrote: > Obviously you haven't been reading the literature, or noticed that every > manufacture with the expertise and manufacturing capability is trying to > get into the DSLR business, if there weren't high profits, there > wouldn't be new entrants to the field. There are also high costs so you > won't see any small players getting involved. The fact that Sony, > Samsung, Panasonic, etc. are entering the field alone should tell you > that. Just because the store and sales employee don't see much of it > doesn't mean it isn't there. > > I hate to say back in the good old days but what the hell. When the > first wave of electronics began to replace mechanicals in SLRs in the > late 1970s, I was selling cameras, damn I was young then. I made most > of my income from Prize Money, manufactures would pay prizes for selling > particular items, usually it was paid to the store, but the company I > worked for passed most of it on to the employee. Cameras like the ME > and the Minolta XD which replaced a lot of precision mechanical parts > with electronics were quite profitable, based on the Prize Money paid > out and we sold boat loads of them. I don't doubt that the same holds > true of DSLRs. > > William Robb wrote: > > >>----- Original Message ----- >>From: "P. J. Alling" >>Subject: Re: The JCO survey >> >> >> >> >> >>>I assume that as with most electronic equipment there's a 40 point >>>profit margin built in initially. That may have changed since I last >>>had anything to do with a company that owned their entire pipeline >>>from >>>production to sales but I doubt it. The whole reason to concentrate >>>on >>>DSLR's is that they aren't commodity items, like P&S cameras, which is >>>where margins are razor thin. Assuming 40% markup over cost I'd say >>>they'll be making money when the price drops to $599-699. levels in >>>about 6 months if they follow the model used in most of the >>>electronics >>>industry these days. By then most of the new R&D should be recovered >>>and the cost basis will be lower as well. >>> >>> >> >>When I was selling cameras, there was almost no profit at all in SLR >>cameras, from manufacturing right through to the seller. >>I don't see how anything has changed that way in the last 20 years. >> >>William Robb >> >> >> >> >> > > > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
